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Learning to develop my own film is awesome. It's so gratifying. I learned so much this week about photography, and that it's so much more than having the best camera: the right paper, film, developer, stop, fixer, and hypo-clear are certainly part of the art.

Now I see why "old fashioned" photographers don't think digital photography is quite as nifty. In addition to a good eye, developing your own pictures requires work and patience. It's like putting together a model car--you know how it's supposed to look, but you can only follow the instructions and hope it looks as good as the picture on the box. If you think you can take good pictures, and you're all digital, I challenge you to test out your talent with film and developing your own photos. It's humbling!

We created photograms, or "rayograms," where you place objects directly on Ilford RC photopaper, and then expose the paper under a condenser/enlarger. Here's what I got:



This is just a test strip to find out what your aperture and exposure time should be under the enlarger, but I just loved the way it came out. It's not perfect, as one side is exposed longer than the other, but it still has a striking quality about it.

I can't wait to be enlarging my own negatives! I feel like a kid waiting on Christmas!!

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